Abstract
We report on the newly increased event rates due to the recent discovery of the highly relativistic binary pulsar J0737-3039. Using a rigorous statistical method, we present the calculations reported by Burgay et al., which produce a coalescence rate for Galactic double neutron star (DNS) systems that is higher by a factor of 6-7 compared to estimates made prior to the new discovery. Our method takes into account known pulsar survey selection effects and biases due to small-number statistics. This rate increase has dramatic implications for gravitational wave detectors. For the initial Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, the most probable detection rates for DNS in-spirals are one event per 5-250 yr; at 95% confidence, we obtain rates up to one per 1.5 yr. For the advanced LIGO detectors, the most probable rates are 20-1000 events per year. These predictions, for the first time, bring the expectations for DNS detections by the initial LIGO detectors to the astrophysically relevant regime. We also use our models to predict that the large-scale Parkes Multibeam pulsar survey with acceleration searches could detect an average of three to four binary pulsars similar to those known at present.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | L179-L182 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 601 |
Issue number | 2 II |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Feb 2004 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work is partially supported by a David and Lucile Pack-ard Science and Engineering Fellowship and an NSF Gravitational Physics grant (0121420) to V. Kalogera. D. R. Lorimer is a University Research fellow funded by the Royal Society. He also acknowledges support by the Theoretical Astrophysics Visitors’ fund at Northwestern University. F. Camilo acknowledges support from NSF grant AST 02-05853 and a travel grant from NRAO.
Keywords
- Binaries: close
- Gravitational waves
- Methods: statistical
- Stars: neutron